Been there, done that
by Zelotia
Summary: The Marauders endure a lesson about werewolves.


**A/N: **This is my first fanfic. I hope you like it. Please review, it is greatly apprieciated.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything you recognise. The Marauders and everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

_Werewolves?_

_We're going to be learning about werewolves? _Remus Lupin fought down a scoff. This'll be a laugh.

Beside him he felt Sirius Black twitch and James Potter, to his other side, dropped his text book _In the Eye of Defeat: How to break through. _

Professor Bo-jangles began to speak. Silencing the excited whispering students in an instant, "Now, werewolves are classified as Dark creatures. They are clever, dangerous and extremely terrifying. They are perfectly capable of killing you in an instant, without a second thought." The Professor continued, "However, they only behave like that at full moon, whilst transformed. They endure an excruciatingly painful body and mind change once a month that renders them weak and exhausted in the days to follow."

_Too right it does! _Thought Remus. He had only just recovered from last month's transformation. He and his fellow marauders had hidden in the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade during the long winter's night. Sirius had taken it upon himself to provide a little entertainment. He had sent Peter Pettigrew, or Wormtail, out into the village of Hogsmeade to fetch some food and butterbeer (they had missed dinner because the moon rose earlier than usual). Peter returned bringing with him a thick layer of snow, clutching four bottles of butterbeer and a plate of stoat sandwiches. Sirius, being picky, sent Peter outside again to fetch something a bit more appetising than the sandwiches (they had gone off them since a rather disgusting afternoon tea with the gamekeeper, Hagrid). Peter had stumbled back in, still in human form, brandishing a pile of sweets from Honeydukes. Remus had smelt Peter and his wolf mind took over; he pounced on the chubby boy, his red claws poised to strike. Luckily Peter morphed into a rat before Remus inflicted any serious damage.

Remus had spent the last two days wallowing in his own guilt; that was when he wasn't persuading his three friends not to join him during the full moon any more.

James and Sirius were deeply regretting telling him of the food and drink adventure because they knew they would never hear the end of it.

Professor Bo-jangles was speaking "When a werewolf transforms, it hardly looks different from an ordinary wolf but there are three differences. They are?" He addressed the class. Surprisingly, many hands hit the air.

"Miss Vance?"

"Werewolves have harsher fur. It is brittle and wiry. They have red claws, whereas wolves and dogs have black or clear claws. And werewolves have a distinctive howl and bark. It is shriller and purer and over-all more terrifying."

_Got it in one, _Remus thought.

"Excellent! Ten points to Ravenclaw! Now those three subtle differences are hard to spot and if confronted by a werewolf you are hardly going to stop and check the texture of its fur, the colour of its claws or the sound of its bark." Remus twitched slightly at the use of the title 'it' "Really, you have no option but to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction." The professor laughed at his own joke but Remus didn't think it was very funny. To his annoyance, Sirius burst out laughing. Padfoot's tactlessness earned him a sharp poke in the shoulder.

"Shut up! You're supposed to be acting discreetly!" Remus hissed in Sirius' ear.

"Yeah, I am. Other people are laughing, so am I." Sirius looked defiant.

"Yes, but –"

"Save it for when you have a good side of the argument, eh Moony?"

That hurt. Sirius got another poke in the shoulder.

Professor Bo-jangles recovered from his bout of giggles and resumed talking again, "You cannot use magic on a transformed werewolf. Spells rebound off it. Even _Avada Kedavra _will bounce off it." _There's 'it' again,_ "So, when trying to defeat one, don't waste time and energy attacking it with spells. Hit it with something solid or use magic indirectly to overcome it. For example, you could levitate something and drop it on top of the werewolf."

Remus winced; this lesson was interesting, but painful.

"When a werewolf is transformed, it loses it's human mind. It is being controlled by its wolf mind. The wolf doesn't have much feeling beyond hunger and anger, so, if a werewolf is hungry it will kill whatever it gets its paws on. It would even kill its best friend." Bo-jangles paused for dramatic effect. It worked well, you could feel the tension going through the musty air of the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom. "Now, I want to find out how much you know about lycanthropes." Bo-jangles broke the silence with his bubbly tone. When people realised they were supposed to volunteer their knowledge, they tentatively raised an arm into the air.

"Mr Midgeon?"

A small boy jumped at his name; obviously he hadn't expected to be picked, "aren't they supposed to hate being looked in the eye?" Midgeon cowered under the harsh, but not unfriendly, stare of the Defence Professor.

Remus turned his head to James, who turned his head. Together Moony and Prongs had a silent blinking battle. Who could go the longest without blinking? Prongs won, his talent for Quidditch had given him harsh eyes. Remus pouted comically.

_Wrong! Well, ish, anyway. _He thought.

"Yes, Midgeon, werewolves hate being looked in the eye, although only when transformed. They will cower under a strong gaze and will often turn tail and run but if you show any sign of weakness the wolf will pounce and force itself on you. I wouldn't recommend eye contact with a transformed werewolf."

Peter, two seats down from Remus dropped his bag with a loud clatter on the hard stone floor. He reached down and collected it, shaking slightly. When he righted himself he leaned over to Sirius, still quivering, and whispered something in his ear that made Padfoot let loose a bark of laughter and Peter blushed deeply as Sirius whacked him over the back of his head.

Remus chuckled. So great is the stupidity of Peter Pettigrew.

Graham McMillan was talking now, "I heard, from a rather reliable source, that werewolves are unable to touch silver." He said in his usual regal manner.

_Well your 'rather reliable source' has obviously got some of his facts muddled up. _Remus thought as he fingered his silver prefect's badge.

As if he had read Remus' mind, Professor Bo-jangles said, "I think, Mr McMillan that you ought not to believe facts from your reliable source any longer. Werewolves are perfectly capable of touching silver."

"Werewolves are immune to pain." Flinch-Fletchly spoke as if he knew all the facts in the world.

Remus received an incredibly painful jab in the ribs from James to prove that one false.

"No, not really" the Professor corrected, "they can, however, tolerate greater pain than you or I. A werewolf endures a transformation once a month which is considered one of the most painful things to tolerate on this earth. It is even more painful than the Cruciatus curse. Because the werewolf has endured such high pain, it can tolerate pain that would normally cripple a human being."

"Prewett?"

A stocky girl spoke, "werewolves can only be killed by a solid silver bullet through the heart."

"Well," the Professor chuckled, "I think you might find they will be killed by just about any bullet through the heart." The class twittered nervously.

"Light!" a girl Remus did not know the name of called from the back of the room, "they are sensitive to light!"

_Only in wolf form,_ Remus and his fellow marauders had spent the last month planning a rather spectacular joke on the Slytherins. They had managed to slip into their common room, under the invisibility cloak of course, and had charmed as many objects as they could to burst in a flame of bright light and sparks when touched. Of course, James and Sirius had wanted to stay and see the look on Snape and Malfoy's faces when they picked up their ink bottles.

Peter still had trouble seeing.

"Yes, Miss Maclagan, werewolves are sensitive to light, but, once again, only in wolf form. Evans?"

"A werewolf's greatest fear is the full moon." Lily Evans recited.

_That's true enough, _Remus agreed. He himself feared the full moon over all other things.

"Generally; from their first transformations, werewolves fear the full moon, unless," Bo-jangles added dramatically, "they have experienced something far worse. Seeing someone brutally murdered, for instance or perhaps they were captured by a banshee and tortured."

The Professor stopped talking and scanned the room, playing the typical teacher roll of picking the 'quiet ones'.

"Longbottom?" He finally asked.

The boy jumped about a foot in the air, "erm, I – I thought they were – they were immune to a-aging, Professor?" he blurted.

"No," Bo-jangles said loudly, causing Frank Longbottom to jump again, "quite the opposite. A werewolf ages faster because of the transformations it experiences. It will often show sings of growing old from an age as young as twenty."

Sirius snorted, "Really?"

Remus nodded sadly.

"You're going to look like an old fart when you're twenty?" James grinned.

"Well, not twenty, but I will age faster than you three and will probably look like an 'old fart' – as you so graciously put it – earlier than I'd like to." Remus said.

"Geez, I'm sorry." Peter said.

"Well you better be careful," James joked, "you don't want us to desert you, you'll detract from our image." Sirius thumped him but Remus found it funny and laughed, perhaps louder than he ought to. Bo-jangles turned on the hysterical Marauders with cold eyes. Remus returned to his notes but James and Sirius, being stubborn, returned the sharp gaze of the Professor.

"Well," Bo-jangles said, "you three seem to have a lot to say on this matter." Remus sighed gratefully, he had been left out of this one, "Lets hear it!" Bo-jangles demanded.

"Well," said Peter, "werewolves are deadly serious,"

"They are pathetic at Quidditch!" sighed James.

"And they seem to be particularly friendly with Dogs, Rats and Stags!" finished Sirius.


End file.
